Health

a) GPs and hospitals

1) The experience with GPs and hospitals is very mixed some good but lots of bad.

2) Parents must be told as soon as possible that their child has a learning difficulty and people with learning difficulties must be told as soon as possible if there is something medically wrong with them in a way they can understand.

3) Good support to keep healthy must be provided; health issues are missed when left to many support services.

Many people, now with little or no support, are left without knowing what health checks they should have and have no arrangements made for them.

Some advocacy health schemes such as those in 'Once a Day' are particularly good at making sure people get what they should be getting.

4) Some GPs do not listen properly and need training about communication with people with learning difficulties, talking to the person (not their parent or carer), drawing if helpful. Everyone must use the accessible information that is already available. There should be a good way of telling everyone what is available.

5) GPs must respect the confidentiality of any adult with learning difficulties and we need to make sure this is included in their training.

6) There must be good access to equal health care and preventative care for people with learning difficulties. Advocacy should be provided to ensure this.

b) Hospital stays

1) Hospital stays need to be properly prepared for and supported during stays. This can often mean staff who usually support people, particularly people with higher support needs should go into hospital with them. There should be people especially trained in hospitals, alongside general training for all staff.

2) Operations may need extra special preparation.

c) Mental Health Services

1) There were big concerns about people with learning difficulties using Mental Health Services. Rights to consent can be ignored or taken away. Proper treatment and support for people with learning difficulties was not available.

2) How people with learning difficulties are treated under the new plans needs to be carefully thought through.

d) Consent

1) Consent to medication needs to always be obtained if at all possible after it has been explained in every possible way.

2) National rules need to be drawn up if someone can't give their consent to medical treatment. These need to be followed properly e.g. when people have injections because they are violent.

e) Dentists

1) Some dentists were way behind the times offering little or no help to people with learning difficulties. People should be able to get a good service from a dentist they choose locally.

f) General

1) Communication must be helped by relevant speech therapies and equipment such as electronic communicators. Staff need to learn how to sign.

2) Sign language interpreters should be made available whenever needed.

3) People with learning difficulties need more health information and their rights to treatment.

4) The role and value of community nurses should be built upon.

5) Information must be put into simple terms with no jargon. Complaints procedures need to be accessible.